CHAPTER 34: WINTERS IS COMING

"I am Paula, and I am with another friend, Ness... We are trying to contact you... If you hear me, please wake up and... head south! Only you, though far away, can save us, Jeff... Please hear my call and begin heading south... Jeff! You are a friend who we've never met... But you are our one and only hope!"

Winters, a small country to the north... Snow Wood Boarding House...

My eyes flew open, and I shot straight up in bed. Cold sweat speckled the back of my neck, and the smell of from a nearby tool bench filled my nostrils. I reached onto my dresser and snatched my glasses. Without them, I proved blind as a bat, although bats aren't blind. Few people know that, but I digress.

The wall lamps were on, which probably explained why I'd just had the strangest nightmare. I never slept well with lights on, but my roommate Tony feared the dark more than death itself.

I looked over at Tony who turned his head to regard me. He rubbed his eyes. "Ah, Jeff, I just dreamt that you and I were taking a walk... What's wrong?"

"A walk? In this weather?" I asked. "That's a dreadful thought. I had a weird dream too."

I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. Something tugged at the back of my consciousness. An image flashed through my mind. Two fellow teens, one a boy and the other a girl, stood in a dark cave, blocked by a steel door. The girl's words repeated in my mind over and over, like an earworm of a bad song. I shook my head, trying to banish the girl's chant, but I couldn't. In my gut, I felt something I'd never felt before. Almost as if this girl, Paula, and this boy, Ness, truly needed my help. A silly notion, to be sure, but somehow I wanted to believe it to be true. I didn't like the Snow Wood Boarding House and wanted to get out at my first chance. Maybe the time had come to leave. No, again, a silly notion.

A loud yawn escaped me. As much as I wanted to go back to sleep, I not felt wide awake.

"Drat," I murmured. "Looks like the earworm wins..."

"What are you fussing about?" Tony asked, still laying in bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Nothing," I said.

With a profound sigh, I climbed from bed and pulled on a pair of pants, a gray blazer, and my converse. I headed for the door, hoping a quick walk around the halls would silence this dream girl, Paula.

Before I could make it out, Tony sat up straight. "Jeff, where are you going in the middle of the night. You know the dorm rules, right?"

"Yes, Tony, I believe I do." I put my hands in my pockets, awaiting his lecture.

"If you get caught, you'll get punished big time..." he whined.

I shook my head. "Shut it, Tony."

"W... what's wrong, Jeff?" he stammered.

The voice of Paula nagged in the back of my mind so repetitively; I let out a loud growl. Tony took a step back.

"All right... There must be some reason that I don't understand. I won't stop you."

"Thank you!" I turned back for the door.

"But it's dangerous to leave without taking anything along."

"It's not like I'm leaving the building, Tony!" I groaned. It seemed like he just wanted me out, now. He probably just wanted the room to himself.

"Hey, I think there's some stuff in the locker room that you should get."

"Earth to Tony! I'm not planning on-"

The voice of that incessant girl increased in intensity ten-fold. "This is Paula! And I'm with Ness! We desperately need your help! PLEASE head south!"

"Shut up!" I snapped.

Tony reared back as if I'd smacked him across his freckled face. He shook his head.

I blinked several times, staring at Tony, but not looking at him. Once again, I could see Paula and Ness. She kneeled on the ground sobbing, and Ness put his arm around the girl's shoulders, trying to console her. A piece of my heart cracked at that sight. Even more so, it felt like these were real people in need of real help. All of my years studying science told me to ignore it, but my gut told me to go south-To leave the wretched boarding house once and for all.

"Okay, fine"! I stamped my foot. "I'll head south!"

Tony nodded. "I'll help you get out of here!"

"T-thank you," I said. "I didn't mean to have a shout."

"Don't worry about it." he laughed. "Our teachers yell at us more harshly than that!"

I closed my eyes tight, then glanced at my messenger bag sitting on the floor.

"Bloody hell! I can't believe I'm doing this. I must be completely mad!" I snatched my bag and threw it over my shoulder. Popping it open, I checked what I had inside. A broken spray can; always useful for building spare things. A ruler, a protractor, and a boiled egg from lunch earlier. THAT I probably wouldn't be touching. Then my hand slid over the beautiful toy I'd developed. A big bottle rocket. If anything tried to mess with me, man or beast alike, it would prove to be a useful weapon indeed.

With that, I nodded to Tony and he nodded back. We left the room and headed out into the common room. The four prefects of Snow Wood sat on the couches across the room; backs turned to us.

I looked at Tony and held a finger to my lips. His eyes showed that he understood. The time had come to be stealthy. We crouched low and crept to the stairs on our right. As we went, I overheard one of the prefects.

"I heard a creature called Tessie lives in the southern lake... I don't believe it! I think someone made a model and placed it in the lake."

I silently snickered. They were all seniors, and they still were telling each other ghost stories about lake monsters and boogeymen. Surely, everyone knew Tessie didn't exist. There were no such things as monsters.

Tony and I took the stairs, as quietly as possible. Creeping and putting one foot down in front of the other. Stepping ever so lightly to make sure not a single one creaked.

Somehow we made it to the bottom without making noise. I moved towards the locker rooms, but Tony grabbed my arm.

"What?" I whispered.

"Look! Maxwell's light is on!" he pointed to the first door on our left.

Following his gaze, I saw a light coming from the crack of Maxwell, the school's resident science teacher's door.

"So?" I furrowed my brow.

"You should say goodbye to him, ya know. He's the only wicked cool teacher here."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Fine!"

We crept to his door, and I rapped lightly.

"Come in!" Maxwell's gravelly voice answered.

We slipped inside, and I shut the door, turning the doorknob so it wouldn't even make a clicking sound.

"Oh, Jeff and Tony. You startled me. Are you looking for a late night snack?"

"No, sir," we said in unison.

"Oh bother," he sighed, looking over papers on his desk. "I'm having some trouble with my project. If only Jeff's father, Dr. Andonuts, were here. He'd be able to provide a great deal of help. I heard he's an astounding person."

"I wouldn't know," I stated flatly. Someone bringing up my old man never made me feel good inside. If not for his constant busy projects, I would be at home, and happy.

Maxwell continued. "He was the first leader of our Ultra Science Club... I heard he's greater than Einstein or Heisenberg."

"Again, wouldn't know!" I spoke under my breath.

"Rumor has it he's also very strange."

"Look, I wanted to stop in to-"

He cut me off. "Say no more. If you're heading to the locker room, take this key along. It's a little bent, though."

Maxwell handed over an old-looking key. I took it and turned it over. It didn't look like it could fit in a keyhole, let alone open it.

"Jeff is thinking about leaving..." Tony piped up.

I scrunched up my face and glared at my freshman underling.

Before I could scold him, Maxwell said, "If you leave, call me, and I'll record your adventure. It's like saving the game, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. Of course, this is no game. This is life, son! Life!"

We turned and left the room, ignoring his bad jokes, and walked into the next door on our left, the locker room. It didn't take but one attempt at opening a locker to find out that the key wouldn't work worth crud. So in short order, we found ourselves back in Maxwell's office.

"Hah, ha, ha. The key didn't work, did it?" Maxwell greeted us.

Tony shook my head. "Of course not! Blood look at the thing!"

He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I thought that might be the case. So I just invented the... 'Machine that Opens Doors, especially when you have a slightly bad key."

"Slightly?" I raised both brows. "Slightly? You gave me a broken key. How did it even get this way? What were you trying to open?"

"Sorry for the inconvenience." Maxwell handed me a small silver box with various buttons and switches. "If you are Dr. Andonut's son, you should be able to repair small tools and make them useful."

"That's all he spends his spare time doing!" Tony chuckled. "He keeps me up at night!"

"The bloody lights keep ME up at night..." I grumbled.

"Oh, Jeff. Just try to keep a positive attitude," Maxwell said. "And be safe out there. I'll cover for you and say your dad came to pick you up for awhile."

The fact that he seemed so willing to help me escape the confines of Snow Wood made me feel an unusual warmth inside. It might've been my dinner, but I felt good inside.

"Thank you, Maxwell," I said.

We left the room without another word and headed back into the locker room. Once inside, we shut the door behind us and walked up to the furthest locker; the one Tony had pointed out when we first came in.

"You sure this isn't considered stealing?" I asked.

"Nope," Tony replied "This is the lost and found locker. Finder's keeper's and all that."

I smirked. "I still feel kinda bad."

I held up the silver box to the locker's keyhole and pressed the ON button. A small bar came from the box and dove into the hole. The box vibrated, then, the locker clicked. I pulled the box back and opened it. Inside sat a Sherlock Holmes-styled hat. My eyes flew wide.

"Nope, I don't feel bad anymore!" I picked up the hat and put it on.

Tony laughed as I sifted through mostly useless clothing. I found a heavy jacket to put on; then I found a Pop Gun; something akin to a BB gun, but with weaker firing pressure. I started to put it back, but Tony grabbed it and shoved it to my chest.

"Youll need this. I heard the animals have gone wild recently!"

I furrowed my brow. "I'm not afraid of any animals."

"You say that now!"

"Yeah, yeah," I waved him off.

After searching deeper, I found a broken air gun. If I found the time, I could probably make it into something stronger than a pop gun. I shrugged and shoved it into my messenger bag.

"That's everything useful." I shut the locker and stored the Bad Key Machine.

"Then let's go out front," Tony said. "I'll see you to the gate. No further. As I said, dangerous animals are lurking, waiting to eat us! Just like zombies!"

"Don't say that word!" I snapped. "You know how I feel about zombies!"

"Yes," he said. "You peed yourself last time I tried to show you Night of the Undead Alive."

I sighed. "I thought we promised not to speak of that ever again?"

"Sorry!" Tony chuckled.

"Whatever, let's go." I led the way to the front doors of the boarding school.

We popped open the doors and rushed out into the cold. The gate stood there, before us, ominously waiting. I swallowed down my spit. I still couldn't believe a dream had lured me to this point. I felt fear in my heart, knowing the trouble I'd be in when I got back.

Tony hustled to the gate and kneeled down next to it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Well, it's locked!" Tony said. "Okay, now use me as a step and climb over the gate."

Again, I found myself swallowing spit, as I walked up to Tony and stepped on his shoulder with one foot. With his help, I could just barely reach the top bar.

"Well... I'll say goodbye for now," he said. "I don't know where you're going or why, but remember, we are best friends forever."

"Thank you, Tony," I said. "We are best friends, aren't we?"

"Could you... uh... hurry up? You're heavy, for a twig."

I chuckled to myself as I reached the top of the gate and pulled myself up and over. As I landed in the snowy grass, something howled in the distance, and loud grunts came from the nearby trees. With wide eyes, I spun back to Tony, ready to have him help me back inside, somehow. But Tony had already fled back inside.

I turned back to the wilderness before me, seeing small hills, and trees everywhere. A light snow began to fall just then, and I shivered.

"I am bloody mad," I whimpered and started off into the land of Winters.